Many of these pieces are still available for sale by either calling the gallery at 760 416-3611 or emailing to info@mmoderngallery.com with your requests. We will establish purchasing order by time and date.

Obviously these paintings and sculptures needed to be viewed in person to be fully appreciated. The photos and scans used on these images came in to us at various resolutions and quality. We apologize if they are not up to par.

Please enjoy these and feel free to post any comments here. We will check back periodically.

ok what am I doing wrong, I click the link it opens Itry to veiw as slide show nothing happens, click on a photo and nothing happens..................help
I figured it out had to adjust that pesky firewall.

Now can I ask if there is any possibilty for us less finacial able, will there by prints of any of these wondeful works?________
~"May the Tiki Gods bless you and always keep your life Tikifull!"~

this show had a BEAUTIFUL turn out in terms of art...so much awesome inspiration form the island of exotic dreams is left unclaimed by the public...these artists all gave forth...now they must prosper...
_________________www.kooch-e-koo.com

I am all for helping any and all artists prosper, and as orginal pieces of art they are worth every penny that they are asking, but for some of us (only speaking for me really but it applies to you....) we want to be able to own a version of that, maybe not as good of quality as the original, but at the point that we can afford to own a copy of one and support the artist, because I know I love so many artists on this site, Flounder, Benzart, Kooche,and so many more, and I will as I can afford to buy a piece of their work and in doing so help all of these great artists to keep doing tiki.
I apologize for this soap-box moment.
_________________May the aloha spirit be with you in all that you do.

There was a very cool Tiki Vending Machine in this show from Muntiki, however, it was Sold and whisked away before we had a chance to photograph it! This machine created a huge line-up and caused the city of Palm Springs to run out of quarters (just kidding about the quarters). It is very difficult for us to take photos or art submitted for group shows due to the volume of art. It is the artists responsibility to provide jpegs to the gallery prior to the start of the show. This does not always happen for a variety of reasons. That being said, we make every attempt to photograph the merchanidise that jpegs are not supplied for. With the tiki vending machine, the couple that purchased it wanted it to be kept classified and have moved to their undisclosed private tropical island paying homage to the Tiki Gods and basking in seclusion. The only time they see the mainland now is to restock the machine as the UPS Boatman can not find this island on his radar screen (I really need to start getting some sleep).

Maybe Muntiki can post a picture of this great machine on this post if they have one. That would be way cool!

one may not have the means to drop on an original painted/carved by the favorite tiki artist but 99.9% of artists don't have the clams to front a repro operation on a single image... i have quality unframed art hanging all around my sudio that was shot straight out of my $99 epson printer because that is what i can afford! the tiki community is a busted lot!

Regarding prints from original works in the show. As Kooche pointed out, the cost of issuing a run of prints can be very expensive. The artist or publisher (sometimes one and the same) have to bear up front costs with no gauranty of sales. The financial return on prints is usually very low, especially for the artist. SHAG, Mark Ryden & Tim Biskup may be exceptions to this, however, people tend to complain when these artists finally get into a position where they can actually make a few dollars on some of their prints.

Many people could use a serious economics lesson when it comes to the art market. Please don't misinterpret, prints are very cool and fill the need for a mass price point, but purchasing original artwork is what keeps the artists working and the gallery open.

Many of you may find it interesting that putting on an art show runs between $ 7,000 to $ 10,000 for a month. Consider:

This is why so many art galleries go under. Art galleries, especially those that cater to tiki, are a labor of love and very seldom make the gallery money.

When the original works from artists don't sell at gallery shows, it can become very difficult for them to get future shows since galleries can only show so many pieces per show.

So go out there and support your favorite artists by purchasing their original works. Otto has a very cool Tiki show coming up and if it doesn't make money I suspect there will not be a second one (and that would be sad).

I think this is a great topic of discussion and I love to come back and read and share further my thoughts.

1. As a business, it takes money to make it.
I wanted to take Tiki Tony's original artwork that he is doing for me for my WI. Tiki Event and have a print of 11X17 made, well the estimate I recieved was for a 100 prints and was $1300+, so needless to say I will not be able to do that as I would have liked. I know I would love to open a tiki bar here in Wisconsin, but is it feasible, will it make money, can I sell a bank on the idea that it will make money. Having a belief in something, getting the chance to try and prove it, and actually proving it, well as Mastercard says "priceless".

2. Any business that cannot support itself is going to go under if their overhead is more than their profit, while having shows is expensive and the orginals in being originals are priced at their worth. If you cannot get someone with the financial means to buy them then what are they worth? And I will admit my previous belief was that an artist made money on the prints not on the orginal. 150 prints sold for 150.00 dollars is $22,500 minus the estimated cost of $1500 to make prints is $21,000. Not bad money for an artist, but only if as you said, you can sell them all. How do artists like Shag and others do it consitently? Is it because enough people bought their prints that more and more people saw their work and wanted a piece for themselves, I woul dlike to think that might be one possiblity. Are there others, I am sure there are.

3. As I mentioned before, I want to support as many of the wonderful tiki artists that are out there and were at the exhibit, but for me and I am sure others, financially we are limited in how we can support them and at what price point we are able to do so.

I do want to say mahalo to the M Modern Gallery for their support of Tiki and all of the wonderful artists, I do sincerly hope that they are able to keep doing Tiki for a long time. Keep up the great work that you are doing.

_________________
~"May the Tiki Gods bless you and always keep your life Tikifull!"~

for all painters of tiki or anything i have to say it's rougher than you might imagine in the gallery scene...the gamble in picking up a print/shirt from an up and coming artist is much less than buying an original from someone established or not - but very few are willing to part with a couple of dead presidents just to hang/wear an image by a guy that nobody knows... i'd rather paint my next original than chase down your $15 for a Tshirt even if that means i am paying to paint a figure that i plan to never show...